New Britain Mayor To Propose 2013-14 Budget Next Week

NEW BRITAIN — — Residents are scheduled to learn next week what Mayor Tim O'Brien will propose for taxes, municipal services and school spending in the 2013-14 fiscal year.

The finance board recently forwarded him a $244.7 million budget proposal that's almost certain to take some sharp reductions before O'Brien and the common council are done with it.

The council must approve a budget in mid-June, and will schedule public hearing as soon as O'Brien offers his own proposal. The mayor is expected to present his plan sometime next week, according to Phil Sherwood, his deputy chief of staff. The budget would take effect July 1.

"The one thing the mayor has been firm about is that there won't be an increase in tax revenues. He'd veto that," Sherwood said Wednesday. "Everything else is on the table."

Last year, O'Brien's first in office, the city ended up with a $232.4 million budget. He ordered a massive consolidation of municipal departments, eliminating the jobs of some high-salaried managers and doing away with some agencies altogether.

That plan counted on millions of additional dollars being raised by new trash collection fees at apartment complexes, fines for chronically blighted properties, and penalties for excessive calls for routine police service at the same address. During the summer, O'Brien also levied licensing fees on landlords, warning the council that he would have to cut library hours and other services if the system wasn't approved.

When O'Brien's presents his new budget plan next week, he is expected to report on how much those initiatives generated.

Possibly the most difficult section will be education. O'Brien campaigned as an advocate of school funding, but in his first year he added just $500,000 to the $118 million schools budget. He said a steep deficit left over by former Mayor Timothy Stewart prevented him from giving more.

Even so, the $500,000 was the first increase the struggling schools had gotten in several years. Stewart held the tax rate flat for several years in a row, but also kept the school system at the lowest funding level allowed by state law. Educators say the system lost dozens of teachers, as well as aides, guards and custodians, over that time, even as students' standardized test scores continued dropping.

This year, the schools have asked for a $20 million increase, but acknowledged they won't get anything near that much. Some council members say that instead of raising taxes to get more for the schools, they're receptive to issuing $2 million or more in bonds to buy new textbooks. That would spread that would be spread over future budgets.

O'Brien hasn't announced when he will give his budget presentation, but it's expected to be a weeknight at city hall.